Mayor Rob Ford and Councillors Doug Ford and James Pasternak attempted to prevent CASMO from using city property, but were stymied by the City Manager. Questions remain about how and why the City Manager reached the decision to allow a hate group to use city facilities while denying other city facilities to a peaceful, legal gathering the very same day.

UPDATE: An individual identified as representing the United Church of Canada lends support to the bigots and racists of CASMO:

Monday, August 29, 2011

Canada's New Democratic Party is a the manifestation of a political movement mired in obsolete radicalism that the major countries in the developed world have rejected. One needs only to look at their leadership of Libby Davies, Joe Comartin, Brian Topp, Paul Dewar, to see irrelevant middle-aged white people who have clasped on to union-driven, "make the rich pay" vapid sloganeering which has been shunned by a world that continues to embrace "The Third Way."

Bill Clinton, Tony Blair and Jean Chretien led a wave of blending liberal social policies with conservative economics that created stability and prosperity for their countries and is an approach that has been embraced by the majority of voters in most of the world's major democratic nations.

The NDP, with its regressive policies, was nonetheless able to score an increase in its vote in part due to the personal popularity of its recently deceased leader, Jack Layton. But the NDP surge was even more due to the inept political skills of Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe, whose party's collapse provided virtually all of the NDP's gains.

With Layton gone, the NDP realizes they have no one comparable to replace him, but to cling on to the momentum that Layton's death has given them, they are being shameless in their attempt to replicate a Canadian phenomenon.

At the end of his political career, Pierre Elliott Trudeau was intensely unpopular. He resigned his seat rather than face Brian Mulroney in an election he knew he was going to lose. Trudeau had earned the enmity of western Canada for the contempt he showed them and was unpopular in the rest of the country for the poor economic leadership of his government. Indeed, much of Trudeau's political success is due to his having the good fortune to face the least charismatic opponents in Canadian political history in the persons of Bob Stanfield (twice) and Joe Clark.

But a funny thing happened after Trudeau resigned. His popularity increased about a decade later, as some people's nostalgia helped them forget how badly he mismanaged the country. He also benefited from a generation of students who were taught that the multicultural policies he imposed were visionary and about the genuine vision he had in his achievement of patriating Canada's Constitution and creating a Charter of Rights. From this nostalgia emerged a Cult of Trudeau that the Liberal Party had been able to use to its advantage until 2006, and still has adherents.

The NDP, as out of touch as they may be, are not completely absent of observational skills, and seeing the sympathy that has been expressed over Layton's death to cancer, think they can ride that sympathy into the creation of a Layton legend and cult that will continue.

But the NDP brain trust forgot a few things. The sympathy for Layton has a lot to do with him being likable and people being naturally empathetic to a public figure dying, almost literally, before their eyes. Layton was as little like Trudeau as he was like Bobby Kennedy. Sixty-one is early to die, but it can only be considered young if you're a Galapagos tortoise. Layton wasn't martyred for his beliefs, he died of a disease that takes thousands of other Canadians every year in circumstances that are no less tragic for the loved ones of those involved.

Patriation of Canada's Constitution

The major difference between Trudeau and Layton that will prevent the Layton cult the NDP hopes for from sticking is that unlike the NDP leader, Mr. Trudeau had accomplishments.

There is no lasting legacy that the NDP can point to for Layton. Whereas Trudeau did have the Constitution, Charter, and multiculturalism, as well as exhibiting strong, determined leadership during the October Crisis. Trudeau helped maneuver Canada's foreign policy towards being more independent and he fought off the greatest threat to the separation of Quebec when it was led by the independence movement's most dynamic and intelligent leader ever, Rene Levesque.

Not the least notable difference between the two men is that unlike Layton, Trudeau actually earned the title of Right Honourable by being elected Prime Minister.

The NDP may be riding high for the moment on Jack Layton's ashes, but with an election more than four years away, the distant memory of a likable guy who didn't really do much to affect Canada will pale in comparison to the issues of the day in 2016. It's the Liberal Party, with its stronger roster of capable politicians and history of national leadership that stands the most to gain from the NDP's loss of Jack Layton.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Ontarians who were under the impression that they live in a free society where they can use cameras in public places may be surprised to learn they are not free from harassment by agents of the Province.

Well-known Canadian political blogger Blazing Cat Fur was at Queen's Park Sunday afternoon to record the al Quds Day rally held by CASMO, a Khomeinist hate group that has posted anti-Israel videos to its website by the neo-Nazi former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke.

A Queen's Park Security Guard, an employee of the Provincial civil service, attempted to get BCF to stop filming since it was "offensive" to the Khomeini-worshipping women who had gathered to denounce and vilify Israel in front of the provincial legislature while waving the flag of a banned terrorist organization.

The Province appears to have omitted to provide basic training in civil rights to its security personnel. A Toronto Police constable finally told the guard that BCF had the right to film a public demonstration on public property - something that would be obvious to any high school civics student, but evidently not to someone entrusted with keeping the peace at the seat of Ontario's government.

CASMO came under fire earlier in the week when Mayor Rob Ford and a number of Councillors, including Doug Ford and James Pasternak, attempted to have the City revoke the Shia Muslim group's permission to hold an al Quds Day seminar and dinner at a city owned facility. City politicians were concerned that CASMO and al Quds Day, an event created by the late Ayatollah Khomeini for the purpose of demonizing Israel, had deeply anti-Semitic overtones and their use of the Scarborough Centennial Centre was a violation of the city's anti-discrimination policy.

The Mayor and Councillors' wishes were overruled by the City Manager, but it came to light that the decision to allow CASMO to use the facility was influenced by a City department head who had written an editorial in favour of the Canadian Arab Federation, which was defunded by the federal government amid allegations of it being anti-Semitic and expressing support for terrorism. This same department head also advocated for use of Sharia Law in Ontario's Family Courts and co-authored a paper with a U of T Professor who stirred up a recent controversy by facilitating anti-Semitism in her class.

It seems the Fords' and Pasternak's concerns about CASMO were well founded. Speakers at CASMO's Sunday afternoon rally at Queen's Park made pronouncements like, "..the Zionist regime that sucks the resources, the blood, and everything that belongs to the people all across the world..and they use it for themselves" while their supporters waved the flag of Hezbollah, an anti-Semitic terrorist organization. The bigotry was abundant at the event as another speaker at CASMO's hate fest, the Islamic Society of York Region's Zafar Bangash, referred to President Obama as "that black man in the White House."

At CASMO's Friday evening gathering, the City took unprecedented action in sending a supervisor to monitor what was said. That supervisor's report is not yet publicly available, but this entire episode highlights shortcomings in the decision-making process by the City's bureaucracy and the need to examine it in depth.

UPDATE: A cruel irony is that the hate-group CASMO was allowed to use city property to spew its bile, but a peaceful, friendly group that wishes ill-will to no one was banned from using City property the same day.

From NBC Washington:Tiny Goshen College in Indiana has banned the "The Star Spangled Banner: at all sporting events because the Mennonite school's president considers the National Anthem's words to be too violent.

The 1,000-student school had already banned the words last year, but the band could still play the music for patriots in attendance. Now, the school has banned the song entirely, according to NBC Sports.

...NBC Sports' Rick Chandler weighed in, saying: "I suppose we could have followed the example of the Mennonites and simply fled, giving the nation back to the British. But then we’d all be playing cricket."

The Taiwanese Canadian Association of Toronto’s Harry Tsai told The Huffington Post Canada that Liberal MP Jim Karygiannis called him Friday afternoon to tell him that he had seen a press release from his organization calling for Interim Liberal leader Bob Rae to fire him from his critic’s post.

“I don’t think he was very pleased,” Tsai said. “(Karygiannis) said, ‘ I don’t care what you guys write. It won’t affect me. And I’m glad you can write.’ He kept saying, ‘I’m glad you can write English,’” Tsai said.

The NDP has been trying to canonize its recently deceased leader, heaping invective on anyone who dared to challenge the partisan nature of their crass exploitation of his death.

But their violation of election laws by funnelling donations to the Broadbent Institute through the party has got them in trouble with Elections Canada and highlights the cynical behaviour of the socialist "mourners"

Friday, August 26, 2011

Updated Aug 27 based on additional info from The Globe and Mail (which in turn was based on info from this article).

Residents of Toronto's Trinity-Spadina riding have been the recipients of a surprise treat in their mailboxes this past week. A free copy of Women's Post.

Reports indicate that having it haphazardly turn up in mailboxes throughout the riding is something that has not happened before and it doesn't seem to be happening in other ridings. Women's Post is published by none other than Trinity-Spadina Liberal candidate Sarah Thomson, whose face, with the large caption "Sarah Thomson weighs in on the tough choices facing Ontario voters" graces the copy that residents received without solicitation. Inside the summer 2011 issue, on the first printed page, is a full page editorial by Ms Thomson in which she presents an odd, rambling, boating analogy, the point of which is that Ontarians should vote for the political party for which she is running in the upcoming election.

Despite the ads and a few fluff articles about food, the issue is self-promotion for Sarah Thomson. Does this qualify as campaign literature?

Ms Thomson, who has never held public office, has shown as a political candidate that she is not shy about being opportunistic. But using the opportunity as publisher and owner of her own magazine which she is using to promote her candidacy may or may not land her in hot water with Elections Ontario.

Elections Ontario regulations say that candidates cannot spend their own money on a campaign. If they do spend money on themselves, it must be through the campaign account and the maximum any individual can donate to an individual can donate to any candidate is $1240.00. Campaign literature must be identified as such and as authorized by the candidate of riding association, or a third party, but obviously a candidate cannot be their own third party.

The printing and distribution of the summer Women's Post would likely exceed the $1240 amount. An official at Elections Ontario who wished to remain anonymous said, "This is a grey area and we'd really need to take a close look at it to make a determination about whether it complies with the rules or not, and that will take a while."

Ms Thomson was an unsuccessful candidate in the last Toronto mayoral election. She was forced to withdraw from the contest due to dismal support. In the final days of the campaign, she lent her endorsement and active campaigning to her rival, the Liberal former Deputy Premier of Ontario, George Smitherman. Many people speculated at the time that some sort of deal had been struck with the Liberals, and Ms Thomson's virtually uncontested candidacy for the Trinity Spadina nomination as Liberal candidate in the provincial election did nothing to dispel that speculation. Ms Thomson quickly expunged her harsh criticism of Smitherman from her website. She had written about him: "..Mr. Smitherman seems to forget, as we have witnessed with his inconsistent and disorganized transit plans and, of course, his history with the E-Health blunder.This is a classic move to increase the size of government without comprehensively studying whether it in fact can reduce costs.

Ms Thomson may find that the criticism she levied against fellow Liberal Smitherman may be mild in comparison to what she has to face from the electorate and the media. Ms Thomson's campaign office was contacted yesterday to comment on whether the Women's Post issue promoting her candidacy was paid for from her campaign or other sources. One of her assistants, after an interval, said that Ms Thompson would call back personally, but as of the posting of this, she has so far failed to return the call. Based on her response to inquiries made by The Globe and Mail, it appears that the summer Women's Post that was distributed was financed the way the magazine is usually financed, which is not through a political fund.

The Globe reports that Ms Thompson "said the magazine is regularly distributed within the riding. Before putting out the summer issue she made sure she wasn’t breaking any Elections Ontario rules, she said."

(NOTE: I know people in the riding and they don't recall the Women's Post ever being delivered to them prior to Ms Thomson's candidacy. That was echoed by staff for the riding's incumbent MPP, Rosario Marchese. I live in the riding next door and have not received a copy of Women's Post in mymailbox.)

Ms Thomson had been embroiled in a similar controversy during her mayoral run, when she also put herself on the cover of her magazine with the caption "Toronto's Next Mayor." A lawyer consulted by the Globe has said that Ms Thomson's use of the magazine to promote herself and her candidacy, as she did duing her mayoral bid, do not violate elections laws.

But this time, depositing the magazine in the homes of riding residents raises additional questions.

The current representative in the Provincial Legislature for Trinity Spadina, NDP MP Rosario Marchese, did respond to an inquiry about this, saying: "I wish I had my own newspaper that I could use as a vehicle for my election campaign. I know the people of Trinity Spadina very well. It's an intelligent constituency and I'm confident they'll be able to see what Ms Thomson is doing for what it is."

Thursday, August 25, 2011

A fascinating story has developed through the intention of a group of Canadian followers of Iran's late Ayatollah Khomeini to use City of Toronto facilities for an event to demonize Israel.

The Canadian Shia Muslim Organization (CASMO) is the sponsor of an al Quds Day dinner and seminar set to take place the evening of April 26 at the city-owned and operated Scarborough Centennial Centre. CASMO is a group that made the news last April when they were publicly excoriated for posting anti-Israel videos from the racist former Ku Klux Klan Grand Dragon David Duke on its website.

After that humiliation, CASMO has since been a little more careful to pay lip service to the language of tolerance. While they now proclaim "No to anti Semitism" on their website, their other pronouncements belie that by expressing support for the anti-Semitic terror organization Hezbollah and their support for the regime of Iran's Holocaust-denying president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Al Quds Day, the event that CASMO plans to celebrate on city property, was created by the deceased absolute ruler of Iran's Islamic Republic, the Ayatollah Khomeini, for the purpose of promoting organized vilification of Israel in the Islamic world.

CASMO has held al Quds Day events in City facilities before, but it only came to the attention of Council members when it became a recent subject for bloggers in Toronto.

This week, upon learning that the event was to take place on city property and was a potential violation of the City's Anti-Discrimination Policy, Mayor Rob Ford's Office and a number of City Councillors including Councilors Doug Ford and James Pasternak, wanted to put a stop to it. For that to happen, a ruling on compliance with the City's anti-Discrimination Policy was required and that was initially left to Uzma Shakir, the Director of the City's Office of Equity, Diversity and Human Rights.

Councillor Pasternak said "There is no way that this group (CASMO) should be allowed to hold an event on City Property. The nature of the group indicates that they could not possibly comply with the City's values of respect and tolerance. I'm dismayed that a City facility would consider allowing this event to take place and am doing what I can to stop it happening."

However the event will indeed take place. The Mayor and Councillor Doug Ford have expressed their deep disappointment in the ruling made late Thursday afternoon by the City Manager; that CASMO's evening of deploring the middle east's only liberal democracy can go ahead at the Centennial Centre. Councillor Ford's office voiced disgust with the ruling and made the statement that, "We don't believe City facilities should be allowed to be used by one community to denounce another."

Sources at City Hall have said that Ms Shakir's initial notes suggested that she felt that the CASMO al Quds Day event did not violate the City's anti-discrimination policy. Upon learning of this, the Mayor's Office and Councillor Ford placed intense pressure on City staff to re-examine the initial decision and the City Manager made the final decision based on reports and recommendations from Ms Shakir and other staff.

However in a surprise twist, it turns out that Ms Shakir, whose recommendations influenced the final decision, had written an editorial for rabble.ca, the radical leftist website that is the "media sponsor" of Israeli Apartheid Week, in which she criticized Federal Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney for defunding the Canadian Arab Federation due to alleged anti-Semitic statements from its leadership and its support for terror organizations Hamas and Hezbollah. She has also expressed support for allowing Sharia Law in Family Courts in Ontario.

Ms Shakir's recommendations regarding CASMO's use of City property were reached in consultation with City lawyers and staff and there is no evidence that she was motivated by anything but a desire to determine fact in the matter.

But at least one Council member has expressed concern about the optics of this decision being influenced by a staff member who has made statements such as those made by Ms Shakir, who also acted as a spokesperson for a coalition that campaigned against the City renewing the contract of its then Chief of Police, Julian Fantino, in 2004.

For now, CASMO's evening of anti-Israel rhetoric will go ahead as scheduled. However the group was given a stern warning from City officials that if anything resembling hate speech occurs during their al Quds Day program on City property, they will be not receive any such approval for any event in the future. In an unprecedented move, the City is going to send a Supervisor to monitor CASMO's al Quds Day Seminar at the Centennial Centre to ensure that they comply with City policies.

The Mayor's office worked hard to attempt to revoke permission for the anti-Israel event, but the City's updated anti-Discrimination Policy, which requires that groups using city property comply with the principle of promoting respect, tolerance and diversity has not yet taken effect, and the determination about the al Quds Day seminar was made using the old policy.

The Mayor's Office issued a statement saying that "a positive outcome of this is that we see the need to establish clear guidelines for use of city property in the future and we're determined to make sure that happens soon. The new guidelines will give us better tools to deal with situations such as this."

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

CASMO, the Khomeinist Shia Muslim group that posted a video by neo-Nazi former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke to its website, will be using Toronto city facilities to host an anti-Israel event on August 26.

CASMO is hosting an Al-Quds Day Seminar and Dinner at the City owned and operated Scarborough Centennial Recreation Centre, where the event, by its nature, will violate the city's updated anti-discrimination policy.

The revised policy requires that events taking place on City of Toronto property must comply with the policy of promoting respect, tolerance and diversity.

Al Quds Day is an invention of the Ayatollah Khomeini who wanted the Islamic world to dedicate an annual day to denouncing Israel and Zionism. It is being carried on by his followers, including the Holocaust-denying president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Ahmadinejad's Iran is the world's premier sponsor of terrorism. Canadian supporters of this vicious regime which treats homosexuality as a capital crime, persecutes practitioners of the Baha'i faith, and is responsible for the torture, rape and murder of Canadian-Iranian journalist Zahra Kazemi, will gather on Saturday for a hate-fest on City property.

Last year, CASMO'S al Quds Day rally was used to promote The Sea Hitler Canadian Gaza boat and this hate group routinely slanders Israel as an "apartheid" regime.

UPDATE below:

CASMO, like its inspirational leaders in Iran are, at least in word, supporters of the terrorist group Hezbollah. A number of City Councillors, after being informed of the CASMO-sponsored event, have expressed concern about city property being used for an al Quds Day seminar. Councillor Doug Ford has asked Uzma Shakir, the Toronto's Director of Equity and Human Rights Policy to make a determination about whether it violates city policies as they currently stand.

While Council has directed the City Policy Manager to update the Anti-Discrimination policy, the new policy has not yet come into effect. Ms Shakir has been asked to respond to Councillor Ford by tomorrow afternoon regarding whether CASMO's anti-Israel hate event will violate policy and be allowed to occur in a City facility. A spokesperson for Councilor Ford observed that while CASMO makes noises about refuting anti-Semitism, their press releases are filled with the usual virulent anti-Israel rhetoric that suggests otherwise. The event is scheduled for Friday at 6:30 pm.

Mayor Ford's contact information is here. You can contact his office to voice your opinion.

10. Someone wants to silence me? Get in line.
9. Nothing says summer fun like a death threat.
8. Why is the staff in such a good mood?
7. Save me, Oprah.
6. Should I wear my Kevlar hairpiece?
5. And here I thought nobody watched the show.
4. How can someone be so angry at a time when Kim Kardashian is so happy?
3. Some people get Emmy nominations; some people get death threats.
2. This seems like (Jay) Leno’s handiwork.
1. Oh my God! They canceled the George Lopez Show

Run by Michel Chossudovsky, economics professor emeritus at the University of Ottawa, the Centre has for some long while enjoyed what could be called a friendly relationship with the Libyan regime of Muammar Gaddafi. The Centre also enjoys an intimate and wildly successful relationship with one of the world’s pre-eminent cable “news” networks, and it has put that relationship to the purpose of disseminating undiluted Gaddafist propaganda. As I write this, it’s all crashing down around their heads.

The NDP's surge to Opposition status can be attributed solely to the charisma of Jack Layton, who died from cancer this morning at the age of 61. The NDP made modest gains in the rest of Canada, but it is Quebec that turned the perennial 4th Party in Parliament into the Official Opposition.

The ineffectiveness of Gilles Duceppe's Bloc Quebecois, Layton's character and his Quebec roots, and socialist policies similar to the Bloc's all contributed to the NDP's unprecedented gains in Canada's French-speaking province. But of those factors, Layton's leadership was undoubtedly foremost.

The NDP gain was a double-edged sword for the party. It came with the cost of a Conservative majority, which ironically left the socialist party with less power despite its vast increase in seats. It also cost the NDP in that the increased scrutiny that came with being Opposition highlighted the incompetence and stupidity of so many of its caucus members.

With its perpetually smiling, vacuous interim leader Nicole Turmel a mere stopgap, the knives will soon emerge as a fight to replace Layton likely will occur very soon. The leaders of the NDP range from the responsible yet uncharismatic, like Tom Mulcair and Paul Dewar to the inept and the crazy, like its Deputy Leader Libby Davies, known for promoting 9-11 conspiracy theories and association with anti-Semites.

Layton was able to dominate and bind his disparate group through his distinct personality, but none of the contenders for the NDP crown have a shred of Layton's leadership or character. Over the next few days, the condolences and tributes to Layton will pour in. In the weeks after, the Liberals and what's left of the Bloc, as well as the governing Conservatives are all aware of the vacuum created by Layton's death, and will attempt to exploit the abyss at the top of the NDP.

If there is any silver lining for the NDP in the loss of its leading light, it is that it came very early in the electoral cycle, which will give them an opportunity to try to rebuild behind a new leader.
They may wish that was not the case. Four years of bungling and stupidity from that caucus will probably lead to another Tory government and the resurgence of the Liberal party after the next national election.

UPDATE: Recognizing his end was near, Layton wrote a letter two days before his death, which he wanted to be made public afterwards. Among other things, it states his wish that an NDP leadership convention should be held early in 2012.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Alternatives International, the odious anti-Capitalist organization whose board includes union thug and former vice president of the anti-Semitic Canadian Arab Federation, Ali Mallah, is having a summer camp this month. Alternatives' recent notoriety emerged from its being an organizer of the Sea Hitler boat to Gaza.

Will there be marshmallow roasts, canoe trips and games of capture the flag? No to the former two, and maybe yes to the last, but only if the flag captured is the flag of a democracy which is to be replaced with the Hammer and Sickle.

"Since 1994, the Alternatives' Days have been an annual weekend of activities related to current social, economic, political and environmental concerns. Once again, a unique program is being offered this year under the theme of Revolutions Confronting Neo-Liberalism. This theme refers to the Arab Spring and illustrates new developments in global resistance to neoliberalism. Discussions will aim to define strategies and the role that social movements - movements that strive for social justice and ecological alternatives to unsustainable development - in Canada have to play in this struggle.

Throughout the weekend, activists and artists from within and outside Quebec, as well as international partners, official guests and members of Alternatives will come together to share analyses, reflections and good will."

The "good will" of which they speak is more likely to be directed at the Castro regime in Cuba, Chavez in Venezuela, or Ahmadinejad in Iran than to any of us in Canada. Neo-Liberalism, for those unaware, is how communists refer to the economic and political system in democracies like Canada and the USA. So those Revolutions Confronting Neo-Liberalism these people are talking about would be aimed at overthrowing our system of government.

You might think that sounds pretty stupid, but not nearly as stupid as our government subsidizing an event that promotes the end of western democracy as we know it.

Last month, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said that Alternatives federal funding related to their Mideast activities had been cancelled. But that group still received almost $1.3 million dollars in federal funds from your taxes last year, and it is safe to assume some of those funds are going to events such as its communist revolutionary retreat.

This is one of the most idiotic recent uses of tax funds (and there is a lot of stiff competition in that arena). Let Jason Kenney know how you feel about the Canadian government helping to fund those that seek the destruction of western capitalism and democracy by sending him an email.

Thursday, August 18, 2011

Even within academia, outside of the field of Education, relatively few people have heard of Paulo Freire. But if you live in a Western country, Freire, an education theorist who died in 1997 at the age of 75, has had a remarkable influence on your life and culture.

Most parents have little idea of what their children are learning. "How was school? Fine. What did you learn today? Nothing" is a refrain that has been passed from child to parent for generations.

But the guiding ideology that Freire founded which has taken hold of our educational system would alarm most parents if they knew its implications.

Paulo Freire

Freire is the founding father of an approach called Critical Pedagogy, which is the current basis of education in most western democracies. Only a scattering of practitioners of the system that evolved out of Friere's seminal work, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which is required reading at teachers colleges, realize that it is rooted in Marxist and Maoist totalitarianism. While ostensibly encouraging equality, it is designed to stifle dissent and condition students to have a uniform understanding of the world while deceiving them into believing they are "critical thinkers."

Not all of this is the fault of Freire, but rests largely with those who have taken up the mantle of Critical Pedagogy. One has only to look at the website of Peter McLaren, a UCLA professor who is described as "one of the architects of Critical Pedagogy" to realize its influences. After getting past the "Che Lives" welcome screen, the visitor is inundated with Marxist, pro-Castro, anti-Capitalist propaganda.

The goals of Critical Pedagogy, as its advocates see it, are to make the classroom more egalitarian, to understand that all students have the ability to share knowledge and teach, just as teachers need to learn form their students, and that the world is fraught with oppression which schools have a duty to advocate against. In theory, these goals don't seem unreasonable. So what is it about Critical Pedagogy that makes it so destructive?

The approach taken by educators who see themselves as Friere's followers is to divide the world into a binary, Manichean equation, where societies, individuals, racial groups and cultures all are either oppressor or oppressed. Once categorized you are, if an oppressor, always wrong, and if oppressed, then always justified in what you do. What makes that facile equation particularly pernicious in education is that it classifies Canada and other Western democracies as oppressor states that are inherently racist, wrong and in need of radical re-invention.

In essence, that translates into our country, culture and civilization being denigrated in the public school system. Children in our elementary schools being taught that we live in a grossly inequitable society and highlights racial and class difference, and by practicing bigotry in the cause of reform, attributes blame to oppressor classes and races. This manifests itself in the Toronto District School Board in ways such as documents that allege that only while people can be racist. It also accounts for TDSB schools allowing only Muslim prayer during school time, since Muslims fall into the oppressed class in the macrocosm of Critical Pedagogy.

An example of a subtle way these ideas are being communicated to our children is the way that Middle Schools approach the issue of the domestic internment of Japanese-Canadians during World War 2.

Children in Grade 7 learn about the discriminatory, racist policy of the Canadian governments to place all citizens of Japanese ancestry into internment camps when Japan was at war with the Allies including Canada. This policy was applied to all Canadians of Japanese ancestry, but relatively few German and Italian Canadians, with whose ancestral countries of origin Canada was also at war. Clearly the singling out of Japanese Canadians was based on racism and deserves condemnation.

But Grade 7 students are taught about this before they are taught about the practices in the rest of the world at the time. There were few if any countries in the world then that did not practice similarly racist policies. What Canada did to its Japanese citizens pales in comparison to Japanese treatment of non-Japanese in countries they invaded like China where massive murders, rapes and extermination occurred, or in The Philippines, or in Korea, where the Imperial Army abducted tens of thousands of women to be used as brothel slaves for Emperor Hirohito's soldiers.

Canadian school children are now first taught about Natives as a monolithic group. Whereas the reality was that there were many tribes, many of whom practiced warfare against each other long before the arrival of European settlers. Native tribes frequently allied themselves with one group of Europeans to attempt to conquer different tribes that had formed treaties with other Europeans. It is only after the British (and Americans) had effectively taken control of North America that they exploited former enemy and ally alike. Though Europeans are presented as singularly culpable, different Native tribes participated in each other's defeat, and it was only in the last 150 years that they eventually succumbed to an enemy whose technological advantages made them better at warfare.

It is appropriate that schools teach about Britain's and Canada's abhorrent treatment of the Native population. But they also learn that at first with virtually no context. The message that these and other examples provides is that Canada's history and the culture that was built upon it is inherently unjust and is something of which to be ashamed.

It is not as if all of the teachers in our public education system are neo-Marxist ideologues. Very few are; most are unionized professionals who are doing a job and are provided a curriculum with which to do it, for which they receive a regular paycheck and summers off.

But the people who design the curriculum and the policies employed by the TDSB seem to have an agenda, but one they don't seem very willing to talk about in public. The Dean of the University of Toronto's Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) refused an interview request to discuss the applications of Critical Pedagogy in their teaching approach. When asked by email, "Do you support or oppose the use of school facilities for religious services during school hours in TDSB schools?" TDSB Chair Chris Bolton responded, “Siddiqui said it all in The Star.” When asked to clarify if he takes the same position that Haroon Siddiqui takes in his column, he answered, “yes.” In his Star column, Siddiquiexpresses support for Islamic prayer in TDSB schools that requires gender apartheid and segregation of menstruating girls.

Ward 21 Trustee Shaun Chen took a different position when he said,"I believe we need to have a second look at what is appropriate and ensure clear guidelines for all schools across the system to follow."How and what our children are taught has a tremendous effect on the way that Canadian society and culture will be shaped. We all have an interest in public education, we all pay for it and we all all have the right to know about it. In addition to clear guidelines, Canadians deserve transparency in a critical component of a system that determines the future of our nation.

CNN's Anderson Cooper was making fun of the Gerard Depardieu airline aisle urination incident and the puns got too be too much for him. Off camera crew laughing got him going to the point where..well see for yourself:

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

A hitherto unknown group, Al-Qaeda in Sinai, posted a statement on the Internet on Monday demanding Sinai become an Islamic Caliphate. It urged Egypt's Armed Forces to breach the Camp David Treaty and interfere to end the siege on Gaza.The statement came amid speculation over the motives behind the Friday, 30 July and early-Saturday-hours armed attacks on Arish police station and a natural gas pipeline north of Sinai. The attacks left seven dead, including one of the assailants, and more than a dozen injured.

Monday, August 15, 2011

In another example of loony radicals biting the hand that feeds it, British cosmetic manufacturer and retailer, Lush, which has branches all over the world, including Canada, wants to hurt Canada's economy with its campaign to stop the Alberta Tar Sands development.

As Ezra Levant's book Ethical Oil outlines, the Alberta Tar sands is one of the most ethical producers of fossil fuel in the world. Despite the pretense to "ethics" by Lush, they have no problem operating a branch in Saudi Arabia, where oil revenues have been used to finance international terrorism and the oppression of women.

Lush is also involved in a dishonest, fanatical campaign to vilify the only liberal democracy in the middle east, while pocketing money from repressivestates, including one that killed more people who were part of an ethnic independence movement in one year than the total number of Palestinian fatalities since Israel conquered the West Bank and Gaza in 1967.

Hypocrisy is an expected facet of these types of fanatics, but Canadians should know better than to finance their destructive campaigns.

There are Lush stores across Canada, including Alberta, a province whose economy they are trying to devastate. Canadians would do well to buy their cosmetics elsewhere.

The NDP' is keeping a lid on its Quebec caucus clown show for fear of more embarrassing revelations.

OTTAWA—New Democrats and their supporters quickly dismissed their interim leader’s membership in two separatist parties as no big deal, but individual Quebec MPs have been slower to share their own views on national unity.

MONTREAL, August 8, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Montreal priest has turned away young pro-life pilgrims from entering the city’s basilica because their message in defense of the unborn was too political.

Wearing stylish jeans and a white button-down shirt, Fr. Robert Gagne, PSS, insisted that the young people walking across Canada to promote the pro-life message could not enter the famous Basilica to pray because of the ‘pro-life’ message emblazoned on their T-shirts.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Here’s how it reportedly went down: 64-year-old, married Indiana state representative, Phillip “Phil” Hinkle — who voted in favor of a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage — allegedly tried to procure an 18-year old male prostitute named Kameryn Gibson on the “men seeking men” section of Craigslist and then offered the young lad $80 plus tip for a “good time” Saturday night at the JW Marriott hotel.

Once at the hotel, Hinkle, in perhaps not the brightest move, reportedly showed his official ID to the male prostitute. Shortly thereafter Gibson, whose ad said he was seeing a “sugga daddy,” had a change of heart and called his sister, Megan, from the hotel suite’s bathroom to come and pick him up. That’s when Hinkle allegedly tried to prevent Gibson from leaving.

Perry, the longest-serving governor in the country who has accounted for 37 percent of all jobs created since the recession, will use his announcement to set the agenda for his presidential bid, focusing heavily on the need to fix the economy.

"Our nation cannot and must not endure four more years of aimless foreign policy," Perry will say, according to prepared remarks. "We cannot and must not endure four more years of rising unemployment ... rising taxes ... rising debt ... and rising energy dependence on nations that intend us harm. It is time to get America working again."

Friday, August 12, 2011

Iranian mouthpiece, the disgraced British former MP George Galloway, continues to serve the bidding of his masters in Tehran by trying to deflect blame from Iran's client Hezbollah, which has been indicted in the assassination of Lebanese ex-Prime Minister Hariri.

Parroting his paymasters, he tries to blame Israel for Hariri's killing in the absence of a shred of evidence pointing to that country's involvement.

Galloway already delivered a thinly-veiled threat to Canada at an assembly in Ottawa last year. The investigation into Hezbollah's role in the Hariri murder was started by a Canadian report and you can hear Galloway's threats in this video (go to 5:39 to hear):

In 1991, Steven Soderbergh made his most unusual and artistic film. A strange fantasy about Franz Kafka that is combination comedy, mystery and adventure.

It stars Jeremy Irons as Kafka and has a supporting cast that includes Sir Alec Guinness, Ian Holm, Jerome Krabbe and Theresa Russell. Unfortunately the movie isn't yet available on DVD, but if you ever get a chance to see it , it's quite the experience.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

A mother is concerned that the gift of dinosaur toys may turn her son into a devil-worshiping believer of the heresy of evolution:

"I know that Satan tries to trick us in many ways, and this is one way that he tries to fool man into believing that there isn’t a God who created the universe. How can they be bones when they are made out of ROCKS? I told my son that dinosaurs are one of Satan’s many ways of tricking man, and he must talk to God before he plays with them."

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

In this item, AI stands for Amnesty International, not Artificial Intelligence. Based on the letter the organization's Canadian heads sent to Federal Immigration Minister Jason Kenney this week, it is doubtful they possess much intelligence, artificial or otherwise.

In their letter, AI complains that the rights of war criminals illegally residing in Canada were violated by publicising their names and photos so the public could aid in their apprehension.

"Amnesty International is concerned about the fact that these cases have been so widely publicized in the context of the lower standards of proof and less rigorous rules of evidence that apply in immigration proceedings. Given that no information is publicly available about the specifics of the allegations in these cases, including the source of the allegations or the seriousness of the charges, the fact that these individuals’ faces and names have been so widely publicized is of particular concern. In addition to reputational harm, it may increase the risk they face upon deportation or put their relatives at risk. "

Kenney made them look like fools in a sarcasm-laden response that pointed out the utter hypocrisy and stupidity of a once noble organization that has descended into a sham that protects abusers of human rights rather than defends their victims.

"You correctly note that these men have “been found ineligible for entry into Canada on the basis of these accusations, and have been ordered deported” (though the snide preface “apparently” is unnecessary and unworthy), but you object that “the details about the nature, basis or seriousness of the accusations against them have [not] been made public.” This is not entirely true and, where true, not fair.

Where the individuals have made their records public, either voluntarily or in federal court, the details of their cases are well known. For example, we know that one of the 30 men still at large, Jose Domingo Malaga Arica, admitted to participating in helicopter raids on villages in which women and children were machine-gunned indiscriminately and to transporting accused criminals to be tortured. We know this because his federal court record is public. However, in cases where no exception to the Privacy Act applies, the government has not revealed such detailed information. What would AI’s reaction be if we did? I think I can guess from your demand at the end of your letter that we do more to “safeguard” the “privacy” of these scofflaws. You can’t have it both ways: you can’t protest that we have not revealed enough information about these men at the same time you oppose our identifying them at all. Is it your position that the Canadian public does not deserve to know that these men are hiding among us unless or until each of them has signed a privacy waiver allowing details of their complicity in crimes against humanity to be made public? If so, I respectfully disagree. I believe the Canadian public deserves better."

Here are two scenarios - see if you think they are significantly different.

In the first, an individual is a member of a separatist party at the federal level a month before becoming a candidate for national office. She rapidly switches allegiances, then quickly ascends to leadership of a federal party, while still retaining membership in a provincial, communist-based separatist party.

In the second scenario, a person resigned from the same federal-level separatist party a full six and a half years before being elected to office for a national federalist party, then was appointed to a position as a junior Minister.

Most people would think the differences between these two situations are rather major.

But some journalists at The Globe and Mail, anxious to try to embarrass the Conservative government, want people to believe that these conditions contain no significant discrepancies.

Taking it their usual preposterous step further, the ideological fanatics and uninsightful polemicists at NDP-linked rabble.ca want you to believe the situations are virtually identical and is evidence of hypocrisy by the Harper Conservatives.

What this appears to be, is evidence of the idiocy and desperation of the NDP to attempt to rehabilitate its hopelessly damaged reputation after the revelation that its new leader was a Bloc Quebecios member only two months before her election as an NDP MP. But more striking is that, even after being elected to Parliament and even after being appointed to the party's top position by ailing leader Jack Layton, Nycole Turmel was still a member of the communist, separatist Quebec Solidaire.

Bloc l'Orange Leader Turmel

Conservative Transport Minister Denis Lebel had quit the Bloc almost seven years before running for Parliament. It was more than a full year later before he was made Minister of State for the Economic Development Agency of Canada for the region of Quebec. In contrast, Turmel gave the preposterous excuses that she joined the two separatist parties, to which she donated funds, to support friends.

Most Canadians don't confine their friendships to people who support the same political party, but don't feel compelled to join a party that conflicts with their beliefs to "support" them.

It's no surprise that Turmel is a federalist of convenience.

It's no surprise that the NDP is so incompetent that it would make such a person its leader.

But what is disappointing is that the antagonism towards Harper evidently is so great that some people in the media will sell the future of the country down the river to try to sink him.

UPDATE: Lorne Gunther at the National Post points out what escaped Adrian Morrow at the Globe

A senior judicial official in Iran says police have arrested 17 boys and girls over a water fight at a seaside park in the southern part of the country.

Five of the youths were released immediately. The other 12 were released on bail on August 7 and could face charges of publicly committing "haram" -- a forbidden act -- after they splashed water on each other in the city of Bandar Abbas.

On July 29, several hundred young people took part in a large-scale water battle at a Tehran park, using toy water guns and plastic bottles in an event that was organized on the Facebook social networking website. Ten of those youths were arrested after photos of the event emerged on Facebook and made their way into mainstream media.

General Ahmad Rouzbahani, head of Iran's morality police, warned that police "will act forcefully" against similar behavior and will not allow such events to happen in public places, or anywhere throughout the country."

Peter Hitchens, the author of The Rage Against God and The Abolition of Liberty has identified a much neglected but likely cause of the insane murder spree by Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik, and it isn't "right wing" commentators in the media.

Labour MP Paul Flynn

Hitchens has an ally in British Labour MP Paul Flynn, who wrote on his website:

"Peter Hitchens is correct. There I have said it. It's today only. We share a view on which we have corresponded in the past. It's a bit of a puzzle to both of us that few others have noticed. About 80% of mass killers were on drugs - usually anti-depressants or anabolic steroids."

Flynn wrote in response to a column by Hitchens (the brother of noted writer Christopher Hitchens) in which he speculated:

Peter Hitchens

"It's the drugs, stupid. In hundreds of square miles of supposed analysis of the Norway mass murder, almost nobody has noticed that the smirking Anders Breivik was taking large quantities of mind-altering chemicals.

In this case, the substances are an anabolic steroid called stanozolol, combined with an amphetamine-like drug called ephedrine, plus caffeine to make the mixture really fizz. I found these facts in Breivik’s vast, drivelling manifesto simply because I was looking for them.

The authorities and most of the media are more interested in his non-existent belief in fundamentalist Christianity. I doubt if the drugs would ever have been known about if Breivik hadn’t himself revealed this. I suspect that mind-bending drugs of some kind feature in almost all of the epidemic rampage killings that Western society is now suffering. "

What drove Breivik to murder over 70 people was likely a combination of factors, from his own personal demons and obsessions to drugs to whatever. His act has brought to light a great danger in Western society. That danger is not the way that unhinged individuals can be motivated by political arguments.

The greatest danger in the wake of the Breivik killings is how neo-Marxist totalitarians and Islamists hope to capitalize on mass-murder by trying to fulfill their goal of restricting the expression of ideas with which they disagree.

Friday, August 5, 2011

As the 4th party, behind the governing Conservatives, the Liberals, and the Bloc Quebecois, Canada's national socialist party, the NDP, was able to get away with its caucus members behaving in idiotic and incompetent ways and still avoid the type of scrutiny a serious political party would endure.

But following their rise to Official Opposition status following the last Canadian federal election, they appear to be shocked and disgruntled that the media dares to criticize and mock them for their incompetence.

Most politicians clamour for the spotlight, but the boobs in the NDP know it is something to be feared, lest it shine a light on their bigotry, hypocrisy, stupidity, and insanity.

This week, they've been caught like a deer in headlights at the revelation that their unanimously sanctioned interim leader was a member of two separatist parties, one of which is also a communist/separatist party.

While the NDP spends a great deal of time whingeing about the unfairness of being treated like any other political party that has held Opposition status, senior NDP strategist Gerry Caplan has at least marginally figured out that this is what they have to look forward to until the next election.

The fact that it has taken this long for the brain trust at the NDP to realize something that any neophyte political observer knew the day after the election is another reminder of just how unfit the party Jack rebuilt is to govern.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Loretta Giorgi ruled on July 27th that a proposed ballot measure to ban circumcision must be withdrawn, calling it "expressly preempted" by state law.

The proposition attracted a great deal of controversy, since it potentially infringed on religious freedom and was meant to bar a practice widely considered as a prophylactic benefit for male sexual health.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Judge Giorgi said the California Business and Professions Code prohibits local regulation of medical procedures. She goes on to write that it "serves no legitimate purpose" for an illegal measure to remain on the ballot and ordered elections chief John Arntz to remove it.

The campaign against circumcision was led by a very strange group of foreskin advocates who refer to themselves as "intactivists." I learned the hard way (no pun) that they get upset when you call them dickheads.

The campaign against circumcision descended into creepy bigotry, when one of its advocates created an anti-Semitic comic book called Foreskin Man, that was evocative of Nazi-era anti-Jewish propaganda.

On the other side, a comic hero called Captain Israel has been recruited to combat Foreskin Man, and in the ensuing battle, appears to have left the circumcision opponent flacid.

The anti-circumcision ballot may have been toppled, but its removal has given newspaper headlines writers something to play with.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Nycole Turmel has been exposed as a member of not one but two separatist parties: the federal Bloc Quebecios and the provincial Quebec Solidaire.

Though she has committed not to renew it, Jack Layton's choice for interim leader of the NDP is still currently a member of Quebec Solidaire, a radical, communist-influenced party headed by a tacit supporter of terrorism in the person of Amir Khadir.

Layton has entrusted Canada`s Official Opposition to someone who saw fit to become a member of a party headed by someone who has engaged in economic terrorism of a small business in Montreal because it sells Israeli shoes.

Iranian-born Khadir was the only member of the Quebec Legislature to vote against a no-brainer motion affirming that Quebec "has and will continue to be an ally of the whole international community in security issues and more particularly against the menace of terrorism."

It seems inconceivable that any reasonable person could oppose that, yet Khadir does, and Layton`s choice for NDP leader evidently supports the party behind such opposition to terrorism.

Khadir and Quebec Solidaire were also actively working to help the Hamas-supporting effort to break Israel`s arms embargo of the Gaza strip. It should shock no one that Jack Layton, in his `wisdom`would appoint someone who held such views to lead the NDP. He appointed a Deputy Leader who endorses identical positions.

Canadians have ample reason to be concerned about the state of Jack Layton`s health given his new battle with a life-threatening disease. If he does not return to helm Canada`s national socialist party, it could remain in the hands of someone with fanatical, destructive political positions.

But Canadians should also be wary should Mr. Layton return to his duties. By appointing someone he thought would not be a threat to his power-base, he has entrusted a great deal of influence to a person associated with some of the worst fanaticism and anti-Canadian policies in the national political spectrum.

Mr. Layton has been said to have the smile of a used car salesman. It appears he has the integrity to match the smile.